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US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent

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Re: US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent

#191

Personally I'm tired of coding around time zones can we just make the whole world GMT time and learn to deal with not having "noons" and "midnights"

Exactly. Lets just wake up when the sun dictates, go to bed when it doesnt. So what if it's 12:37 PM where you are in the world. It's just a label and our circadian rhythm dictates most of this, ignorant of what time society says is "slothful" or "eager" to rise.

Re: US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent

#192
post #103

Such a terrible idea compared to permanent standard time. There is plenty of light during the summer, so there's no need to optimize for that. The winter is when daylight is scarce, so that's what should be optimized for.

Just change your waking/sleeping hours then. It's just a number. Set your sleeping hours based on actual daylight times instead of the number on the clock. Personally I'm happy they just pick one and stick with it.

Most people have a fixed work schedule. If you work for Walmart and the store opens at 8 AM, you can't arbitrarily decide to wake up at 8AM because that's when the sun rises.

Re: US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent

#193

We did this before. 46 years ago. And it went badly. https://www.mercurynews.com/2016/10/30/the-year-daylight-sav... Why do we have such short memories?

That article doesn't say why it was a bad idea. Are we really rejecting this because it'll be dark at 7:35am? Sorry, but that's not even close to a compelling reason not to do this.

It absolutely is. And the Sun won't come up until 8:30AM. No one wants their first couple hours of the day to be darkness. Secondly, it's more dangerous for kids walking to school. And lastly we use more energy since a larger part of our day is lived in the darkness for most people.

Re: US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent

#194

This means permanently EDT/CDT/MDT/PDT? Or would EST/CST/MST/PST all be shifted by +01:00? I am also curious if Canada or other countries would follow suit.

At least in BC we already have legislation to do this as soon as the western states do.

In Alberta it just got voted down by a very slim margin, so if the US made the switch I expect that would be enough to swing it there as well. I expect other provinces would follow suit as well, assuming the federal government didn't just make the decision for everyone (which they probably would if the whole US went to permanent DST).

Re: US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent

#195

I am an idiot. Would this mean that the time stays as it is right now (after the change from this past weekend)? Because I would love that so much.

It's actually really hard to remember which is which, isn't it? lol. I get confused all the time

Re: US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent

#196

Can someone explain why they actually care about this? I always see such strong opinions on it but really, why does it matter to you? Most clocks are digital and change automatically these days and otherwise changing your clocks twice a year is such a minor inconvenience. And whether or not the light should be preferred in the morning or vending is probably a pretty even split. Maybe it’s better to get rid of it (I d…

In part because not all clocks are digital.

So now I have to adjust my old thermostat, my stove, microwave, toothbrush charger, and who knows what else.

It also messes with my sleep schedule for a whole week, whereas the body can easily adjust to the gradual changes of the season.

Re: US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent

#197
S.623 spent nearly a year languishing it seems...better late than never i guess

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/117/s623

curious if govtrack is following this development? id be stunned if it makes it out of the house alive, as efforts to repeal DST frequently face stiff opposition from fast food and entertainment lobbies that insist its value.

Re: US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent

#198

Such a terrible idea compared to permanent standard time. There is plenty of light during the summer, so there's no need to optimize for that. The winter is when daylight is scarce, so that's what should be optimized for.

Why not just ditch time zones altogether and have everyone on the same clock?

DST was good enough to implement while in an agrarian society, so why not the universal clock in a global connected society? Just imagine the precision.

Re: US Senate votes unanimously to make daylight savings time permanent

#200

Such a terrible idea compared to permanent standard time. There is plenty of light during the summer, so there's no need to optimize for that. The winter is when daylight is scarce, so that's what should be optimized for.

I agree on permanent standard time, but just because I think it's silly to make the words "noon" and "midnight" permanently lies. Unless someone is at the edges of an extremely wide time zone solar noon and legal noon are generally to be within 30 minutes of each other. Likewise for midnight. With time zones generally set on hour intervals that's as good as it gets.

In a "daylight savings only" world solar noon will instead center around 13:00 and solar midnight around 01:00. To me that's just absurd.

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