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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

#451
post #403

I really don't like that they picked permanent DST. Does no one realize that this means that we all have to get up one hour earlier year round? That kids will have to travel to school in the dark for the majority of the year, including in most cases standing around in the freezing cold at unlit bus stops? It's still better than resetting the clocks. But I really they should have chosen standard time. Also, this means…

So, why not just have schools start one hour later starting in the fall in the areas where that is an issue?

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

#452
post #403

I really don't like that they picked permanent DST. Does no one realize that this means that we all have to get up one hour earlier year round? That kids will have to travel to school in the dark for the majority of the year, including in most cases standing around in the freezing cold at unlit bus stops? It's still better than resetting the clocks. But I really they should have chosen standard time. Also, this means…

> That kids will have to travel to school in the dark for the majority of the year, including in most cases standing around in the freezing cold at unlit bus stops?

If we cared at all about the children, schools wouldn't start so early. Let's make this change and then mandate a later start time for all schools that get federal funding. That's what we'd do if we cared about the children.

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

#454
post #116

We need a lot of new embedded devices. Lots of them have hardcoded when the time changes and have no way of taking it off.

If that's true they've already been wrong in recent history. The US changed when they do DST in 2007 and I believe other countries have moved it around recently as well. If you're dealing with timezones (which DST is) you either need the ability to do frequent updates or you need to stop dealing with timezones.

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

#456

It feels like we live in such a post-truth world, even the clock will now be an untruth. Couldn't we just use standard time, and let people wake and sleep when they choose, instead of creating an illusion for them?

This was already the case: almost nowhere really uses Local Meridian Time. Greenwich maybe. Everywhere else, even when located in the most appropriate timezone to line up solar and clock noon, is _already_ off by anywhere from zero to thirty minutes.

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

#457

Watching Americans freak out about post-8AM sunrises is surreal to me. The sun doesn't rise until 8:45 during the darkest times of the year here in the Netherlands and its really not much of an issue. Whether standard time or summer time is the better choice here is something I hold no opinion on, but the sheer hysteria some people here express is very overblown.

Not really a fair comparison, given that the Netherlands's latitude would put it in the Hudson Bay were it to be in North America. There are no major North American cities as far north as Amsterdam besides Anchorage.

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

#458
It seems like everyone I know has a strong reaction to this news. It’s clear that sunlight is both precious and scarce for the modern office worker. Why do most employers still require butts in seats for almost 100% of the sunlit day in winter?

It makes me really sad to see people fight over a ubiquitous resource like sunlight. It’s neither natural nor healthy to spend all day every day inside, let alone against your will.

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

#459
post #403

I really don't like that they picked permanent DST. Does no one realize that this means that we all have to get up one hour earlier year round? That kids will have to travel to school in the dark for the majority of the year, including in most cases standing around in the freezing cold at unlit bus stops? It's still better than resetting the clocks. But I really they should have chosen standard time. Also, this means…

Flipside to that is the sun setting at 4:30 in the winter. I think this also makes solar ever slightly more viable sans storage.

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

#460

We did this before, about 50 years ago. Going in, close to 80% of people supported permanent Daylight Saving Time. After experiencing a single winter, that dropped to close to 40%, and it was repealed. Looks like we may be doomed to repeat the experience. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permanent_time_observation_in_...

I don’t get this at all. Why would people want the sun to go down in the afternoon? In my time zone it sets at 4:30 part of the year! That’s awful, and sunrise is at around 7:00am. We have way more sun in the morning.

Because they don't do anything after work and would rather commute in the daylight at 7am so the late sun is of no benefit but the early sun is.

Tons of people already work 7-3 so they already deal with the downside in the morning. Not like night is gonna get any darker.

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