OK, this is a mostly offtopic rant, but by God I feel like ranting about it. I’m finally starting to see a little daylight before I make it to the office and now it’s going to be stolen away this week by this moronic Daylight Saving Time nonsense. Benjamin Franklin (you know, the guy who said “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.”) rolls in his grave laughing at all of us twice a year. He presented the idea of saving candle wax as a joke, to poke fun at those who thought daylight should revolve around them. Now we are the epitome of stupidity in observing this horrid ritual.
The best comparison I’ve heard about daylight saving time is that it’s like cutting a foot off one end of your blanket and sewing it to the other end to make it longer. Sorry, moving the clocks back and forth like a bunch of mindless ninnies doesn’t give you an extra hour of daylight. Like most things political, this may be good for some people but it is certainly bad for others. Being one of those affected negatively, it is a sore spot for me.
As far as energy savings, I can tell you that my personal experience is that I use more energy because of DST. I need lights in the morning when getting ready for work much longer into the year. The light switch becomes a replacement for the window shade. I need air conditioning an hour more in the afternoon and evening since I now get home an hour earlier (during the hot part of the day). My office is climate controlled 24/7, so it’s yet another net loss in energy savings. This is backed up by studies in Indiana (who recently moved to DST) that show a net loss of energy savings overall by the switch to DST.
With safety, studies show a significant increase in traffic fatalities (6.6%) when we adjust to rising at an earlier time, but an insignificant decrease (1.5%) when we switch the clocks back. Simply put, DST costs lives.
When I lived in Indiana I heard over and over “we need to join the rest of the world and do DST”. A quick look at DST observance dates around the world shows that the countries that choose to observe DST do so on varying dates. If we change on a different date than another country we actually change our relative times 4 times throughout the year. If one of us does not observe DST, we only change relative times 2 times through the year. If neither of us observe DST we never change relative times. Is your head spinning yet? Yes, DST does not simplify time coordination with other countries. Don’t buy the tired line that “only backward countries don’t observe DST.” Japan, China, and India are not technologically backward and they do not observe DST.
Needless to say, I don’t care for DST. I get no benefit from it, and a majority of the people I talk to dislike it. I know some of you love staying out till 10PM or later playing baseball (or in some cases mowing your lawn while my kids try to sleep), but some of us find the negatives to be much heavier than any positives. Personally, I’d be happy compromising and moving the clocks 30 minutes permenantly. Unfortunately, until someone in Government grows a brain and gets it done we’ll have to continue to let Benjamin Franklin laugh at our expense.
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Posted under Stupidity
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